Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Prolegomena to the Song of Songs
In Hebrew this book is inscribed שיר השירים shir hashirim, that is, the Song of Songs, or the song of songs. For songs have their own metrical harmony and, as it were, a harmonious blending, and therefore they used to be sung with a modulated voice, so that they might flow more sweetly into the ears and minds of the hearers. Hence St. Dionysius, Ecclesiastical Hierarchy, chapter III, calls the Song of Songs the sweet songs of divine loves. For, as Eusebius says, book XII of the Preparation, chapter XIII, from Plato's Republic, book VI, the love of God and virtue must be sweetly instilled in children through songs and canticles; he adds the reason, saying: "So that the child's mind may follow the law in such a way that it rejoices and grieves together with it, let them thoroughly learn odes and frequently sing them, in which the praises and censures of those things are contained which the law praises and censures. For since the more tender years do not receive the reasoning of virtue, they are prepared by praise and song. Rightly therefore among us the odes of the prophets are learned by children." Hence David also wrote his fiery teachings about God and virtue in verse, namely in the odes of the Psalms, as Eusebius adds. Therefore the son Solomon here imitates his father David. Wherefore in the Arabic Bibles the title of this book is: The Song of Songs, and it is the praise of praises of the wise Solomon, that is, whose proper author is Solomon, the wisest of mortals. In the Syriac version, the title is: The Wisdom of Wisdoms, the book of Solomon himself, which is called in Hebrew shir basscirim, that is, the hymn of hymns, or the Song of Songs.
Moreover, the Song of Songs in Hebrew means the same as the most excellent and sweetest song, just as the Holy of Holies means the same as the most holy temple. For this song far surpasses not only all the songs and canticles of Moses, Deborah, Hannah, Hezekiah, and Isaiah, as Origen explains, but also those of Solomon himself: for he composed five thousand and five songs, III Kings IV, 32. Hence the Chaldean translates: ten songs were uttered in this age, and this Song is more praiseworthy than all of them. The first song was Adam's, the second Moses', the third of the children of Israel, the fourth of Moses, the fifth of Joshua, etc.
Eusebius of Caesarea adds, whose words Cosmas Hortolanus recounts here, that this Song is called the Song of Songs because it sings of the most excellent and sweetest thing, and like a prophet and seer, by singing it foretells, namely the Incarnation of the Word, "and through it the espousal of the Church with Him." Hear Eusebius: "Just as, with John pointing out the Lamb, the law and the prophets exist as it were by John's grace: so also the things signified in the Song of Songs are the culmination of all that is signified in divine Scripture; and just as according to the law there were the Holy things, and beyond the Holy of Holies there was no further place: so also beyond the Song of Songs, one should not expect any more interior or more recent promise."
St. Athanasius has almost the same words verbatim in his Synopsis, from which Eusebius drew them. Moreover, this espousal of the Word with our flesh was the miracle of blessings and the greatest prodigy of all ages. For by it man was united to God, earth to heaven, flesh to the Word, by the most intimate bond of hypostatic union, by which it comes about that man is God, and God is man. For Adam, hearing from the serpent: "You shall be as gods," had desired equality with God, but too proudly and wrongfully. Christ therefore, in order to fulfill this appetite for human excellence by correcting it, immensely lowered and emptied Himself: "Made in the likeness of men, and found in habit as a man," Philippians II, so that He might exalt man and make him God. "Christ became man, so that man might become God," says St. Augustine.
Before I approach the text, four things must be prefaced according to custom: first, concerning the authority and author of the book; second, concerning the subject of the work; third, concerning its manner and style; fourth, concerning its division and parts.
Chapter One: The Authority and Author of the Song
Philastrius, in his book On Heresies, chapter CXXXII, and James of Christopolis, in the Preface to the Song, write that certain Jews and heretics assert that this Song is not canonical Scripture, nor was it written by the Spirit of God, but by the spirit of lust, because it sings of the loves of Solomon and his wife, namely the daughter of Pharaoh, and is therefore profane and carnal. Hence God is never named in it. This was formerly the opinion of Theodore of Mopsuestia, and now of the Anabaptists. Beza attributes the same view to Castellio in his Preface to Joshua.
But they err, because there are many things in the Song that indicate not a queen as Solomon's wife, but a rustic wife of a shepherd. Hence that passage in chapter I: "I have not kept my vineyard;" and: "Go after the footsteps of your flocks, and feed your kids;" and that passage in chapter V: "The watchmen who go about the city found me, they struck me and wounded me." For who would have dared to wound a queen? And many such things occur throughout.
Indeed the Holy Spirit, to show that He understands by the bride in this Song no particular woman, now introduces her as a rustic girl, now as the daughter of a prince, as in Song VII: "How beautiful are your steps in sandals, O daughter of the prince!" Now He calls her a bride, now a sister.
Finally, to show that this bride is spiritual, not corporeal, He gives her epithets that would be unflattering to a bodily woman but adorn and beautify a spiritual one: such as giving her a head like Carmel, a nose like a tower, eyes like a pool, teeth like a flock of shorn ewes; and finally saying that she is entirely black, like the tents of Kedar. Therefore it is certain that the bride here can be none other than the Church, and the bridegroom is Christ, and that His spiritual nuptials are sung here.
It is therefore a matter of faith that this book is canonical Scripture, dictated by God through the spirit not of lust but of charity: hence this book has always been held as canonical by both Jews and Christians, as is clear from the Council of Florence, the Council of Trent, the Third Council of Carthage, and the others that drew up the catalog of canonical books.
The author is Solomon; hence the Hebrew title of the book is: The Song of Songs, which is Solomon's, who wrote this Song on the occasion of his marriage with the daughter of Pharaoh; therefore he grammatically alludes to her, as when he calls her the daughter of the prince, and when he says in chapter I, 9: "I have compared you, my love, to my cavalry among the chariots of Pharaoh." Hence she is also called by Solomon the Shulammite, as if to say, the Solomoness, or Solomon's wife; for that Solomon is understood here in the grammatical sense is clear from chapter III, verse 7: "Behold, sixty mighty men surround Solomon's bed;" and verse 9: "King Solomon made himself a litter of the wood of Lebanon;" and verse 11: "Go forth and see, daughters of Zion, King Solomon in his diadem," etc.
Wherefore Honorius of Autun says that the literal sense concerns the daughter of Pharaoh, the allegorical sense concerns the Church, where by the literal sense he understands the grammatical, and by the allegorical the figurative and metaphorical, which however in parables is the literal sense. Others understand by the bride the Queen of Sheba, who came to Solomon to hear his wisdom, about whom the Ethiopians relate that she conceived a son by Solomon, who became the king of the Abyssinians: hence their king, namely Prester John, even now writes of himself as a son of Solomon. But in the genuine literal sense, as will be clear from what follows, by the bride neither of these nor any other women is understood, but the Church herself. From what has been said it seems to follow that Solomon wrote this Song not long after his marriage with the daughter of Pharaoh, when, endowed by God with heavenly wisdom, he chastely and piously worshipped God. Hence he was called Jedidiah, that is, beloved of the Lord, II Kings XII, 25; although Delrio, Hortulanus, Bacchiarius and others would have this book written by Solomon after his fall, and assign it as a sign of his repentance; but Guidacerius, Almonacirius, Soto Major, Dionysius the Carthusian, Gislerius, Salmeron and Bellarmine, book I On the Word of God, chapter V, and others teach that it was written before his fall.
Moreover, the Complutensian and Royal Septuagint give this book the title: The Song of Songs, which is to Solomon, in the dative, namely dedicated to the true Solomon, that is, to Christ the Lord, says Christopolitanus, and which befits Solomon, that is, the peaceful one who is free from passions; for he transferred all his affections and his entire love to God, says Philo of Carpathia. The Vatican codex has: The Song of Songs, which is Solomon, that is, Solomon's; for the Septuagint seem to put "Solomon" as indeclinable, which therefore can be any case. Hence Origen says: "'Solomon' or 'to Solomon' shows that this work belongs entirely to Solomon." For the Hebrews, like the Greeks, often use the dative for the genitive, especially when they signify that something is proper to someone; hence they say: The estate which is to me, that is, which is mine; the book which is to him, that is, which is his: so in the titles of the Psalms, for "Psalms of David" the Septuagint translate "to David," in the dative, because the Psalms were inspired and dictated to David by God, just as the Song was to Solomon.
Chapter Two: The Subject
Solomon in Proverbs teaches all the faithful the law of God and the common teachings of virtue. In Ecclesiastes he demonstrates to them the vanity of the world and of life. In the Song he strives to draw those torn away from vanity entirely toward truth and the love of God. In Proverbs therefore he instructs beginners, in Ecclesiastes those making progress, in the Song the perfect. Hence St. Jerome in the Prologus Galeatus, which is prefixed like a helmet to the Bible, gives this subject for the three books of Solomon, namely Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Songs: "Solomon, the peaceful and beloved of the Lord, corrects morals in Proverbs; teaches nature in Ecclesiastes; joins the Church and Christ in the Song, and sings the sweet wedding song of holy nuptials." An epithalamium is a song over the bridal chamber, says Cassiodorus, Bede, and Haymo. Origen first wrote this, and after him St. Gregory of Nyssa and three anonymous Fathers cited by Theodoret.
Wherefore Anselm says: "Solomon in Proverbs is a moralist, because he treats of morals; in Ecclesiastes a natural philosopher, because he deals with nature; in the Song a theologian, because he occupies himself with divine things." See what was said in the Introduction to Proverbs and Ecclesiastes; namely, most wisely God, in order to show His immense charity toward men, and how ardent the love with which Christ made man united the Church to Himself, willed that 1013 years before (for so many years elapsed from the first year of Solomon's reign to the year in which Christ was born), this nuptial song of Christ should be sung by Solomon. Therefore Solomon, as a type and ancestor of Christ, describes His espousal through the Incarnation with the Church of the faithful in this epithalamium, that is, nuptial Song or poem, in which accordingly he graphically depicts Christ's preaching, passion, death, resurrection, ascension, the sending of the Holy Spirit, the preaching of the apostles and the conversion of the nations, the founding, propagation, and perfection of the Church, and especially the mutual spiritual loves of Christ and the Church. So the Greek and Latin Fathers and doctors understood this Song unanimously, and even the ancient Hebrews and Talmudists understood it literally as concerning the Messiah, that is, Christ and the Church, as Isidore Clario testifies here. Therefore it is rash to deny this, and to invent another bridegroom and another bride here.
Note here that Christ in the Incarnation entered into, as it were, a twofold marriage: the first physical, with His humanity, which He physically and really united to Himself; the second moral, with the Church and the whole of human nature, which He joined to Himself through the humanity He assumed; the latter follows from the former. For because Christ united His humanity to Himself, and as it were espoused it, thereby in it and through it He equally espoused the whole of human nature and the Church to Himself. For He assumed humanity in order that through it He might join and bind all men and the faithful to Himself as members, and that He might be their head and prince; a head, I say, homogeneous, of the same kind and nature as men. In the former marriage the bridegroom is Christ, the bride is the humanity assumed by Christ, to which therefore first and properly almost all things said of the bride in the Song can be applied; in the latter the bridegroom is Christ, the bride is the Church: the latter is the end and goal of the former: for the end of the Incarnation of the Word by God's gracious design was the institution and sanctification of the Church: therefore in the institution of the Church the Incarnation of the Word is included and presupposed, as the means in the end, and the cause in the effect. Therefore in the first sense, which I shall assign to Christ and the Church in each verse, I leave it to the reader to understand that the same must be applied, with change of name, to Christ and the humanity assumed by Him. Moreover, the former marriage is far nobler than the second; hence also the former bride is far nobler than the latter. For the humanity of Christ is far more worthy, beautiful, and holy than the whole Church, because in every virtue, grace, and glory it far surpasses all men and angels even taken together and combined; because it is hypostatically united to the Word, and of itself primarily reaches God, and from Him draws all gifts, virtues, and graces that befit the Word and that it is fitting and proper for a humanity hypostatically united to the Word to possess. Wherefore whatever is said here, whether in the first sense of the bride the Church, or in the second of the bride the soul, or in the third of the bride the Mother of God, attribute above all to the humanity of Christ: for just as it is the head of the Church, so it is also the head of all holy souls and of the Mother of God herself; and therefore it is the first bride of the Word, which makes holy souls and the Mother of God brides, and espouses them to God.
The first bride of Christ, then, is His most sacred humanity, the second is the Church, the third is the Mother of God, the fourth is the holy soul. Theodoret gives the reason for this in this place, when he says: "This is the summit of blessings, the height of divine kindness, ineffable goodness, incredible mercy, immense clemency, indescribable charity: that the Author Himself, the Maker, the Creator, the Lord, God, and Prince, who is always the same, should have snatched this clay animal, mortal and corruptible, ungrateful and useless, from death and diabolical slavery, and should have bestowed liberty in such a way that He not only made us free but adopted us as sons; and not only granted the gift of adoption, but also both called and made us His bride, and had the bride as one in number with Himself, and gave innumerable bridal gifts, and adorned the chamber and bridal room, and clothed the naked, and finally became for the bride both friend, and bread, and drink, and way, and door, and life, and light, and resurrection."
Moreover, because individual believers and especially the just are members of Christ and of the Church, hence the Song can be understood of each of them individually, in a sense that is not so much mystical as literal, but inadequate and partial. Hence St. Justus of Urgel, John of Jesus Mary the Carmelite, and others explain the Song literally of the soul of the just; indeed Bellarmine considers this epithalamium to be not so much about Christ and the Church as about Christ and the holy soul, especially the eminent and perfect soul: for such a soul has companions who are frequently introduced here, whereas the Church does not have companions, but subjects and daughters.
Again, this Song aptly applies to Christ and the Blessed Virgin, both because she stands preeminent among the just as the moon among the stars; and because the Incarnation of the Word, and consequently the espousal of the Church, was accomplished in her and through her; and because the flesh of Christ assumed by the Word was the flesh of the Blessed Virgin: therefore, when Christ espoused His flesh to Himself, He as it were espoused the Blessed Virgin to Himself. Hence Rupert, William, Harvey, Honorius of Autun, Hailgrin, Cardinal Alan, Insulanus Placidus, Nigidius, and John Picus the Carthusian explain this entire Song of the Blessed Virgin.
Now by the Church, with Theodoret, Aponius, Bede, and others, understand here the assembly of the faithful believing in Christ, gathered both from the Gentiles and from the Hebrews, which began with Abel and Adam, was propagated through Abraham, formed through Moses, and perfected through Christ. For all the ancient patriarchs and saints who in both the law of nature and the Mosaic law served God holily, believed in Christ to come, and through this faith were justified and saved: therefore they belong to the Church of Christ. Hence it is clear that some wrongly restrict this Song to Christians born after Christ; others to Jews born before Christ, as the Chaldean, Rabbi Solomon, and Aben-Ezra restrict it to the Synagogue, as if the espousal of the Synagogue with Christ, which was made through Moses, were described here; but they must be forgiven, because, being Jews, they Judaize.
Therefore in this Song are recounted the loves, graces, and benefits conferred by God through Christ upon the Church, from the first just man Abel not only up to the resurrection of Christ, as Cassiodorus, Angelomus, Bede, Hailgrin, Alcuin, and St. Thomas would have it, but up to the end of the world, when the Church Triumphant shall be united to Christ in heavenly glory, and shall be blessed and reign for all eternity. So Theodoret, Aponius, and others.
The whole book therefore breathes divine love, to such a degree that love itself seems to speak here, namely in Solomon God and the Holy Spirit -- who is true charity -- speaks. Hence St. Augustine in the Speculum asserts that the Song is nothing other than a song of love and a jubilation of charity: "But concerning that Song," he says, "we can transfer into this work, since the whole commends the holy loves of Christ and the Church in figurative speech, and proclaims them with prophetic sublimity."
Hence the Hebrews did not allow anyone to read this Song before the thirtieth year of age, which was the priestly age, as Origen testifies here, and St. Jerome in the Preface to Ezekiel. Origen, in homily 1 of the two, requires a sober and temperate reader, whose passions have already cooled, and whose thoughts and love, torn from earthly desires, cling to the desire for heavenly things. Gregory of Nyssa, in homily 1, requires those who have girded their loins with a certain impassibility, and who, having put off the old man of concupiscence, have put on the new man of innocence. For we must strip off our bestial affections (says Richard of St. Victor in the Preface), lest approaching this sacred mountain as beasts, we be overwhelmed by a hail of stones, or consumed by heavenly fire. But above all this book requires a writer, as well as a reader, burning with charity and inflamed with the love of God. For what cold or lukewarm person could feel or grasp these fires of love? Truly Origen says in homily 4: "Blessed is the one who enters the Holy Place. More blessed the one who enters the Holy of Holies. Blessed is the one who understands the songs and sings them, but far more blessed the one who sings the Song of Songs."
Chapter Three: The Manner and Style
Origen, St. Gregory Nazianzen, and the rest assert that this Song is a bridal drama, or nuptial poem. Hence St. Basil, on Isaiah V: "I will sing to my beloved the Song of my beloved," says: "The Song of Songs is a nuptial poem woven in dramatic form." A drama is a representation of an event, the action of comedies or the plot of tragedies. For the entire book is a continuous metaphor, or allegory written in the comic and bucolic style, which after Solomon was followed by Theocritus in his Idylls, and Virgil in his Bucolics. For the bride is introduced here as in a drama, as a maiden tending sheep, who, betrothed to a shepherd of her own station, loves him with chaste love, and converses with him in the manner of a dialogue, as is customary in comedy and tragedy. The character of a shepherd is assumed here above others, both because the work and life of shepherds is the most ancient, the simplest, and the most innocent. Hence Abel, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Moses were shepherds of sheep, as were Rachel and the other wives of the patriarchs; indeed, in ancient times kings and princes were shepherds and farmers. And also because shepherds represent Christ, who, born in the countryside, namely in the manger of Bethlehem among shepherds, first summoned the shepherds of flocks to Himself through an angel. Finally, Christ is the Shepherd of shepherds. Hence He says of Himself: "I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep," John X. Therefore this entire book is prophetic, and accordingly is nothing other than a continuous prophecy about Christ and the Church, and therefore obscure, enigmatic, and symbolic.
From this it follows that, just as in parables, metaphors, and allegories, so also in this Song there is, as it were, a twofold literal sense: one grammatical, which the bark itself, the surface of the letter, namely the words, presents; the other real and deep, which concerns the things signified through the metaphorical words, as when St. John says, Apocalypse V: "The lion of the tribe of Judah has conquered." "Lion" grammatically signifies a strong and unconquered animal called a lion; but really it signifies Christ, whose strength the lion represents. These two senses relate to each other, mutually correspond, and are subordinated to each other, as the sound and meaning of words, as the bark and the kernel, as shadow and body, as surface and marrow, as body and soul, as garment and man. So in this Song, the bride is grammatically described as a pastoral maiden, the bridegroom as a shepherd; but really by them are understood the Church and Christ.
Moreover, Solomon in this Song imitates David, who in Psalms XLIV and XLVII composed a similar drama and epithalamium of bridegroom and bride, that is, of Christ and the Church; both therefore were sacred seers and poets.
Chapter Four: The Division and Parts
Bede divides the Song into forty sections or chapters; St. Thomas divides it into three states of the Synagogue, that is, of Israel or the Jews: first, believing in Christ through the apostles and the first Christians, who were Jews, from chapter I to chapter III, 10; then it begins to treat of the Jews blinded and persecuting Christians, up to chapter VI, verse 10; from there to the end of the book it treats of the Jews who will believe in Christ at the end of the world. Titelmann considers that in alternate chapters the bridegroom and bride speak alternately to each other.
Our Delrio divides it into three parts, so that the first treats of the faithful who are beginners, the second of those making progress, and the third of the perfect. Others consider that the faithful of the active, contemplative, and mixed life are described here, and finally the heavenly life.
George Eder in his Biblical Economy divides this Song into ten dramas, all of which he attributes not to the Church but to the Synagogue of Moses and the Jews.
Gaspar Sanchez supposes that the order was disrupted; for the fifth chapter should be placed before the first, because the bride cannot say to the bridegroom "Let him kiss me with the kiss of his mouth" unless she has first been summoned by the bridegroom, and she is summoned in chapter V. Therefore he considers that in this Song the ancient rites of marriage are depicted, and accordingly he divides it as a nuptial drama into five scenes. But in this arrangement there is a great transposition of chapters and a disturbance and confusion of order.
More clearly and more genuinely, with others, the Song is divided into five parts, which are: first, the nuptials of Christ with humanity through the Incarnation, and thence with the Church of faithful men through faith and charity, namely the infancy of the Church: this is treated from the beginning of chapter I to verse 8 of chapter II; second, the propagation and growth of the Church: this is treated from verse 8 of chapter II to chapter III, verse 6; third, the fullness of the Church, and its supreme exaltation and perfection as if placed at the summit: this is described from chapter III, verse 6, to chapter V, verse 2; fourth, the decline of the aging Church into old age: this is represented from chapter V, verse 2, to chapter VI, verse 3; fifth, the renewal of the Church and its restoration to the highest perfection, and its glorification in heaven: this is set before the eyes from chapter VI, verse 3, to the end of the book.
These five ages and states of the Church are represented dramatically in this book of the Song through five dramas, or acts, as if upon a stage.
The infancy of the Church was from the birth and preaching of Christ until Pentecost; her adolescence from Pentecost until the Emperor Constantine; her manhood in the time of Constantine; old age then began, as the Arians, Nestorians, Eutychians, and Pelagians spread. Renewal began to be effected by Basil, Chrysostom, Cyril, Augustine, Ambrose, and Jerome. It is continued by their successors continuously until the end of the world, who preserve intact the faith and holiness of the Church against heretics, Jews, Turks, schismatics, tyrants, and all persecutors, and will defend it until the end of the world, when on the day of judgment the full renewal, consummation, and glorification of the Church will take place.
In the first drama, Solomon is introduced as walking about, or indulging in hunting, on Lebanon, a nearby mountain, most pleasant and fertile, and as having come upon a noble maiden who, according to the custom of that age, was a shepherdess. Because of her remarkable beauty of both body and soul, he betrothed her to himself as his bride: hence the new bride, aspiring to the nuptials and bridal chamber of so great a king, says: "Let him kiss me with the kiss of his mouth; your name is oil poured out." All of which belong to a tender and new bride, and represent the infancy of the Church. For the Church being born when Christ was born, seeks His kiss, that is, union and embrace through the Incarnation of the Word, in which He Himself was like a healing oil, poured out in circumcision and passion, and therefore was called Jesus, that is, Savior.
In the second drama, which begins at chapter II, verse 6, the bride is summoned by the bridegroom into the fields and vineyards at the beginning of spring, so that both may feast on the early figs and the flowering vines; then he commands that the little foxes be caught, which will destroy the vineyards. All these things represent the adolescence of the Church, which began at Pentecost, when the apostles, having received the Holy Spirit, began to preach the Gospel, first to the Jews, then to the Gentiles, and to found churches everywhere. The foxes were the first heresiarchs, namely Simon Magus, Ebion, Menander, Basilides, Carpocrates, etc., who devastated the Church, and whom St. John and the other apostles resisted.
The third drama begins at chapter III, verse 6, where the bride is said to ascend through the desert like a column of smoke exhaling a sweet fragrance from all kinds of spices. All these things foreshadow the manly age of the Church, when from the faith of all nations she grew and ascended very high like a column of smoke. The bed of the bridegroom, that is, of Christ, is the Roman Church, in which He rests as on a bed firmly and pleasantly. This was accomplished under the Emperor Constantine.
The fourth drama begins at chapter V, verse 2, where the bride, sleeping, when the bridegroom, wet with the dew of night, knocks at the door, and she is slow to open for him, pays for this delay. All these things mark the decline and old age of the Church, when, through the peace given to it by Constantine, some of its prelates and faithful gave themselves over to leisure, gluttony, and sloth; on which occasion the Arians and other heretics attacked the divinity or humanity of Christ in the East.
The fifth drama begins at chapter VI, verse 3, where the bride is described as beautiful, strong, and perfect, and like an army set in battle array. All these things represent the renewal of the Church accomplished in the age of the Fathers, in which namely the Greek doctors flourished -- St. Basil, Gregory Nazianzen, Chrysostom, Cyril -- and the Latin doctors -- St. Augustine, Jerome, Ambrose, Gregory -- and their successors, who so adorned and strengthened the Church that she, like a camp, resisted all enemies unconquered.
Finally the bride, the Church, near the end of the world, when the number of the elect is already complete, in chapter VIII, desires to go with the bridegroom Christ into the house of her mother, that is, the heavenly Jerusalem, to enjoy Him forever; to whom the bridegroom Christ says: "Set me as a seal upon your heart," that is, seal your heart with My memory and love; for the last and most fierce persecution of Antichrist is pressing upon you, which you will not be able to overcome except through My grace and charity, because many waters of tribulations will not extinguish charity, nor will rivers of persecutions overwhelm it.
Moreover, Cosmas Hortolanus, in order to harmonically match the Old Testament with the New and this Song with the Apocalypse, holds that in the Song are described the seven states of the Church, which St. John symbolically represents through the seven seals in the Apocalypse, chapter VI and following.
By the first seal of the Apocalypse, therefore, depicting a white horse and a rider bearing a crown and a bow, the Incarnation of Christ is represented, His preaching, and the subjection of the nations through the apostles; the Song represents the same, saying, at chapter I, 8: "I have compared you, my love, to my cavalry among the chariots of Pharaoh."
By the second seal of the Apocalypse, the state of the martyrs of the Church is represented through a red horse; the Song indicates the same, at chapter I, 12, saying: "My beloved is to me a bundle of myrrh."
By the third seal of the Apocalypse, the second persecution of the Church through Arius and the heretics is represented by a black horse. The same is represented in the Song by the foxes, at chapter II, 15: "Catch for us the little foxes that destroy the vineyards."
By the fourth seal of the Apocalypse, hypocrites, or rather Mohammedans and Saracens, who most powerfully attacked and still attack the Church, are represented by a pale horse. Hence against them it is said, Song III, 7: "Behold, sixty mighty men surround Solomon's bed."
When the fifth seal of the Apocalypse is opened, the souls of those killed for the word of God come forth, seeking vengeance, and they hear that they should rest a little. This rest of the Church's martyrs is represented by the Song, at chapter V, 1, where the bride invites the bridegroom into the garden to gather lilies.
By the sixth seal of the Apocalypse, the most grievous persecution of Antichrist is represented. The Song represents the same, at chapter V, 4, saying: "My beloved put his hand through the opening, and my heart trembled at his touch."
By the seventh seal of the Apocalypse, Christ's coming for the Judgment is represented, after which the happiness and eternal glory of the Church will follow. The Song represents the same, at chapter VI, 12, saying: "Return, return, O Shulammite: return, return, that we may gaze upon you."
Therefore there is a great analogy and resemblance between the Song and the Apocalypse: first, in subject matter, because in both the origin, progress, perfection, decline, renewal, and glorification of the Church is described; second, in language and style, which in both is symbolic; third, in manner; fourth, in the conclusion: for just as the Apocalypse closes with the description of the heavenly Jerusalem, as the most blessed bride of Christ, so too does the Song.